


Difference

by 2babyturtles



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Second Chances, Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 23:36:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13891515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2babyturtles/pseuds/2babyturtles
Summary: He put someone in the Hospital Wing, so it only seems right to visit them. Plus, he's kinda cute.





	Difference

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MemeKon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MemeKon/gifts).



Harry smooths his hair (futilely) and takes a steadying breath. He’s wearing a green shirt today, an odd step out from his crimson Gryffindor colors, but he thinks the garment is fitting. Hopefully, it also makes his eyes stand out. For a moment, he wonders if he should’ve put on cologne or something, but he doesn’t have any anyway and the flowers clutched desperately in his hands smell too strongly anyway. No, it’s better this way. He’s just Harry.

As could be expected, the Hospital Wing is practically guarded at this point. The most recent attacks are hardly the only ones and there are more than a few people scared to be laid up in bed without protection of some sort. Harry tries to avoid making eye contact with what would’ve been the guarding knight’s eyes if it had any. Beyond its shining metal mask is emptiness and Harry wonders if there’s not some metaphor to be found there.

Realizing that he’s run out of reasons to stall himself, Harry steps around the corner and into the entrance to the Hospital Wing. There’s not as many patients there as he’d feared and even those who are laid up with one ailment or another aren’t paying attention as he makes his way between the rows of beds to the end, where one patient is hidden behind a crisp white curtain.

Madam Pomfrey would probably put curtains around all of her patients if they’d let her, but there weren’t many who were willing to be quartered off like that. Harry gulps, wondering whether this particular patient is too far gone to care. A stinging bites at the corners of his eyes and he blinks it away.

“Mr. Potter?” a woman’s voice calls behind him, the familiar shrill tone of Madam Pomfrey. Harry nods, indicating his destination. Madam Pomfrey narrows her eyes and walks sharply past him to peer in on the patient. “He’s awake,” she acknowledges grimly. “But keep it short.”

Harry nods again, this time in confirmation, and his heart pounds in his ears as he hears the patient’s small voice respond to the interruption: “Who is it?” he asks frailly.

Madam Pomfrey just shakes her head and steps back, letting Harry speak for himself. He closes the short distance between himself and the other side of the curtain with just a few steps but it seems like they go much faster than usual. Suddenly, he is standing in front of a beautiful blonde boy with piercing eyes and a pale countenance. One arched eyebrow rises as questions cross his mind.

“Potter,” he acknowledges.

“Malfoy.”

“I will leave you two to it. Keep it short, Mr. Potter,” Madam Pomfrey decides, glaring at both of them one last time before walking away.

“One of your girlfriends sick, too, or are those from a fan?” Draco asks, nodding at the flowers. The movement seems to take him a lot of effort and Harry wonders how effective his spell must’ve been to do so much damage. Self-loathing bubbles in his stomach and he pushes it away.

“They’re for you actually,” Harry replies stiffly, dropping them on Draco’s bedside table. He raises his own eyebrow at the boy, daring him to challenge the gesture.

Draco is quiet for several moments, apparently processing what’s happening. He seems desperately drawn to the flowers but won’t take his eyes from Harry’s face, a decision that makes Harry’s insides feel like liquid.

“I’m sorry,” they say at once. A tight smile crosses Draco’s lips and Harry blushes.

“I’ll go first,” Harry insists, seizing the opportunity. “It’s stupid and not really enough. I’d do more if I knew how to, but I don’t really. I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“You were right, though, weren’t you? You’ve always been right about me,” Draco smiles sadly, his eyes darkening. “I’m sorry, too. I suppose things might’ve been different if…well if things had been different.” He laughs a little and Harry blushes again at the sound.

“They could be different,” he responds softly. “I brought a book, too.” Retrieving one of the few books he could find that seemed even vaguely interesting from his robes, Harry takes a seat on the end of Draco’s bed.

Draco nods, accepting that it doesn’t hurt to have a change in pressure on the bed. He looks surprised which is precisely what Harry hoped for. The latter shrugs and opens to the first page. He’d specifically chosen a muggle book so that Draco wouldn’t know the story already and he reads the first page of _Beauty and the Beast_ with a soft voice.

At some point, Madam Pomfrey comes by to shoo Harry, but she can’t quite find it in herself to interrupt. When Harry finally does leave, extricating himself from behind the curtain with quiet movements, he blushes at the woman.

“Finally done in there?” she demands, not as sternly as she might think.

“He fell asleep,” Harry admits sheepishly.

He leaves then and Madam Pomfrey stares after him with a soft expression. She peeks around the curtain of Mr. Malfoy’s space and finds the boy sound asleep, a gentle smile loosening his face and curling easily around his lips. It had been rough treating the boy at all, let alone getting him to fall asleep and she hums quietly to herself, pleased.

“Everything will be different now,” she decides.


End file.
